Editing Ball lightning (section)

=== HMS ''Montague'' ===
One particularly large example was reported "on the authority of Dr. Gregory" in 1749:

<blockquote>Admiral Chambers on board the [[HMS Montague (1660)|''Montague'']], 4 November 1749, was taking an observation just before noon...he observed a large ball of blue fire about {{convert|3|mi|km|0|spell=in|disp=sqbr}} distant from them. They immediately lowered their topsails, but it came up so fast upon them, that, before they could raise the main tack, they observed the ball rise almost perpendicularly, and not above {{convert|40|or|50|yd|m|spell=in|round=5|disp=sqbr}} from the main chains when it went off with an explosion, as great as if a hundred cannons had been discharged at the same time, leaving behind it a strong sulfurous smell. By this explosion the main top-mast was shattered into pieces and the main mast went down to the keel.

Five men were knocked down and one of them very bruised. Just before the explosion, the ball seemed to be the size of a large mill-stone.<ref name=Day1813>{{cite journal|last= Day|first= Jeremiah|title= A view of the theories which have been proposed to explain the origin of meteoric stones|journal= The General Repository and Review|date= January 1813|volume= 3|issue= 1|pages= 156–157|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RV4oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA156-IA2|access-date= 29 June 2013}}</ref></blockquote>